Stranger Weather:
October 9, 2017
This past week/weekend we got our first full taste of winter weather here on Kure. Starting Thursday, four days of rain and high winds (average 20+mph with gusts as high as 47) put a damper on our usual routines and left us all a little soggy. As I write this, my laundry has just finally dried after sitting in an on-and-off rinse cycle out on the line all weekend after washing it optimistically thinking the sun would come out Saturday.
On days we work, if the rain is strong and steady enough, it limits our ability to treat the island by making spraying ineffective. Usually we find other tasks to do like out-planting missions or nursery tasks that don’t mind the extra water so Virginie and the gang set out to out-plant a number of natives across the island. Catchment tanks were filled, the cistern gained over half an inch of water, and everything got a rinse after a long hot summer.
Unfortunately, with enough rain or storm clouds, we get less sun which lends to lower charges on our solar panels and thus no power for us to use for personal items as refrigerators and operating systems need what energy there is. With gray skies all weekend just about everyone’s laptop or electronics were dead. Knowing poor weather lies ahead, you usually try to use any day with enough sun to charge what you can and hope it lasts long enough as we learned.
One other thing rain can mean, especially when it comes via a storm like we experienced, is bringing new strangers in. What I mean by this is fall migrant/vagrant birds that make landfall here on Kure. The concept still blows my mind how a bird could be traveling that far from land, or venture that far off course yet find one of the few specks, and I mean speck of land in this vast expanse of open ocean.
It’s common for Kure to see the arrivals of birds throughout the season and as I was emerging from the water on Thursday, I happened to notice six birds flying over the lagoon that were not ‘suppose’ to be here. The flight pattern was off and they were clearly ducks but far too big to be a Laysan Teal. Our duck checks Friday turned nothing up so when I started to question if I had made a wrong call, Andy had a late night flyby sighting that struck the same thought. A quick trip out Sunday turned up 15 Cattle Egrets, not the birds I saw but still unexpected, and then Monday morning settled the score, 10 Northern Pintails and an additional Eurasian Widgeon (pending final IDs).
I’m accustom to seeing one or two birds show up but to have so many in one swoop is a whole new level of excitement. Running between seeps trying to capture an identifiable image while they circled over the island was a rush. Well, that was until we came back from spraying for lunch. Rounding the corner from the Beach Heliotrope next to the pier, myself and a few others were stopped in our tracks as Jill and Zack gasped some high pitched noise of joy and in complete shock, turned to tell us the first albatross was here. Cue a couple more high pitched noises, perplex looks as to if the image was real, and an overall air of the greatest surprise getting pulled off right before our eyes. There it was, the first Black-footed Albatross for winter 2017.
It was a lifer for several, a reminder of so much for myself. There it sat likely exhausted from its long journey in, awaiting the arrival of the thousands to come and quite possibly, its own special one. Two weeks earlier than we anticipated, we were all caught off-guard but that’s what makes it all the more extraordinary as no one was ready for it, and finally, they’re here and with and with a few strange others.
DLNR/DOFAW Kure crewmember,
Ryan Potter
